we hear you loud and clear - Osinbajo says to protesters

•’We hear you loud and clear’ 
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo  yesterday told Nigerians that the Federal Government was addressing Nigeria’s “serious economic situation”.
To those who protested, he said: “We hear you loud and clear”.
Recalling a similar remark by President Muhammadu Buhari a few months ago,  Osinbajo said he had gone round the country and the complaints of the people on the economy were similar to what the protesters complained about.
According to him, the rot of many years could not be addressed overnight.
But he said the government remained committed to turning around the trend and placing Nigeria on the path of growth.
There were protests against the hardship being experienced in the country in Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan.
In Abuja, a group protested in support of the government. In Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the protesters failed to gather at the advertised venue.
Minister of Transportation Chibuike Amaechi, also yesterday, said Nigerians should be patient with the government as it had four years to deliver on its promise.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the consultative forum between the Economic Management Team and the Private Sector on the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, the Acting President said:  ”We are in a serious economic situation and the President was particularly concerned about the lot of the common man.
“And I quote him, “Recession today for many… for  some its means not being able to pay school fees, for others not being able to afford high cost of rice and millets and for most of our young people recession means joblessness…’
“I for one have been across the states and even today some people are out on the streets, protesting that things are difficult. What we are saying to every Nigerian is that  ’we hear you loud and clear’, and we are determined to recover the economy. You have a right to demand for a better economy and we are committed to see it happen.
“Years of deterioration cannot be reversed overnight. Again, it has to be said that it’s our business, it’s our duty to ensure that we put the Nigerian economy on the track of recovery,” he said
Osinbajo spoke of how the government had intervened three times to assist states in the past 18 months to pay salaries.
He added: “And the last intervention was in December when we paid the Paris Club refund to the states. This are funds that the Federal Government had been owing states since 2005. This was to enable states pay their workers and we tend to believe that this is what is being done.”
The Acting President also spoke about the social intervention fund.
This, he said, included payment of N5,000 monthly to the poorest citizens, the home grown feeding programme in several states, and the credit facility to 1.6 million traders and artisans.
Stressing the importance of engaging the private sector in the economic recovery plan, Osinbajo said that the government could not do it alone.
“Your participation is your own commitment to the future of our country and to those coming behind us,” he said.
In Ilorin during the North Central Town Hall meeting by the Federal Government, Amaechi said the All Progressives Congress (APC) government did not promise to fix Nigeria’s problems within a year. He urged Nigerians to wait till the end of four years, adding that the government heard the cries of Nigerians.
“We did not promise you that those challenges will be solved in one year. If we promise you that those challenges would be solved in one year you would have given us one year but you gave us four years mandate; so wait till the end of four years,” Amaechi said.

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Cristiano Ronaldo Shows of his new jet - see photo

 
The world star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo shows off  his newly acquired jet which he did after being announced as the world best.
I will never be poor in my life no matter what happens and i tell this to my fellow footballers "work hard and all this must reach you all" he said

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Fake Arms everywhere

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN (R) INSPECTING ARMS AND AMMUNITION SEIZED FROM INSURGENTS BY THE NIGERIAN TROOPS IN BAGA DURING HIS VISIT TO NORTH EAST ON THURSDAY

•Security agencies must get to the root of the seized 661 pump-action rifles
NOTHING illustrates better the seriousness of the acute security challenge confronting Nigeria than the interception and seizure on January 22, by security agents, of 661 pieces of pump-action rifles in Lagos. The illegal and very alarming imports, surreptitiously brought into the country through China and routed via Turkey, were reportedly packed in 49 boxes and loaded in a 40-foot container cleverly hidden among other goods, including steel doors.
But for the alertness and sense of duty of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), which apprehended the deadly consignment being transported in a Mack truck, with registration number BUG 265 XG, along Apapa-Mile 2 Road, the substantial arms haul would have found its way into Nigeria’s booming market for illicit arms.
We commend the decisiveness with which the requisite arms of the NCS moved to apprehend all those involved in the dastardly transaction leading to the arrest of three suspects who were accompanying the arms to its destination, as well as the Customs officials who initially gave the containers a clean bill of health and cleared it to slip through the ports undetected.
Obviously aware of the grievous danger that this discovery poses for national security, the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), declared that “investigations have already commenced and I have directed that the dragnet should be wide enough to fish out all persons involved in the importation and clearing of the consignment”.
This surely is the kind of resoluteness needed to expose, apprehend and neutralise the brains behind what can only be a vast and intricate syndicate specialising in the clandestine importation of illegal arms. It is particularly noteworthy, as the NCS comptroller-general explained, that the seized rifles were under absolute prohibition and thus could not be legitimately brought into the country. Yet, the fact that those behind this devilish transaction could brazenly have tried to bring such a large number of arms into the country through the ports is an indication of the high level of confidence they had in their capacity to compromise and beat the security at the ports.
It is thus not unreasonable to assume that this may not have been their first time of seeking to bring in arms illegally but for mother luck that failed to smile on them this time around. There is certainly a close link between the massive influx of undetected arms into the country and the ever escalating rate of violent crimes. Thus, apart from the now thankfully largely checkmated Boko Haram terrorists as well as murderous Fulani herdsmen rampaging host communities, who are armed with sophisticated weaponry of all kinds, armed robbers, kidnappers and cultists are also aided in their nefarious activities by access to arms through unofficial channels. There is also no doubt that the perceived inability of the security agencies to effectively check crime in the country may be a motivating factor for individuals to seek to procure arms illegally for self defence.
Col. Ali was therefore spot on when he averred that “such deadly contravention of the law is even more unacceptable considering the fragile security situation in some parts of the country”. Given the complex route the arms consignment traversed on its way to Nigeria as well as within the country, the operations most likely involved a far higher number of accomplices than those currently identified. The NCS must thus seek the cooperation of other security agencies to get to the root of illicit arms importation rings that may lead to other discoveries capable of helping to stem the tide of illegal arms inflow into the country.
Equally critical is the need for the NCS to invest heavily in boosting the professional efficacy of its officers through the acquisition of cutting edge technology that can ensure that the service remains well ahead of criminal elements trying to subvert its structures, processes and systems.

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2face to be a dead man if a protest holds against Mr President anytime - Presidency

 
The office of the acting president Osinbajo says it is going to be hazardous to the young man 2face Idibai if he tries in his life again holding a protest against his own president just because he is out of the country for some rest which he will soon resume his office.
In their meeting in Aso rock yesterday, they made it clear that Nigerians should stop speaking evil concerning president Buhari.

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